Tips for Writers

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Tips for Writers

by Writers' Village University members

As writers, we know what works for our muse and what doesn't. A certain method may help one person while a different technique will benefit another, yet both are viable options. From the simple to the elaborate, WVU members share the following writers' tips that have helped them move forward with their writing.

The Sourdough Starter Sentence
by Charity Tahmaseb

My mom keeps sourdough starter in the refrigerator: a batch that has been living for years. The night before baking a fresh loaf of bread, she measures out a cup of the starter and lets it sit. After eight hours at room temperature, the frothy, fermenting mix is ready to make bread rise.

The same principle can be applied to writing. Many writers ease into writing time: a walk, a cup of coffee, email — all at the expense of the writing time itself. Next time consider a starter sentence. Before you sip that first cup of coffee or peruse email, write the first sentence (or paragraph) of whatever it is you'll be working on that day. Then reward yourself with the latte, a walk, a glance at eBay.

That first bit of writing will bubble and ferment in the back of your mind. You may even find yourself anxious rather than reluctant to return to the page. With your starter already at work, who knows what great things will rise up.

Read it Out Loud
by Betty Kreier-Lubinski

A good piece of writing has a kind of rhythm and flow to it. One of the best ways to see if a piece flows smoothly is to read it aloud. You'll discover any awkward parts that way. Reading aloud also enables you to listen to your dialogue to make sure it sounds like real people talk.

Let Yourself Go
by Sherri Arnold

Don't try to be perfect. Let yourself go. When writing, just get it down. It can always be fixed later. If you have nothing to write, just write about your surroundings, what happened to you today, how you hate your boss, whatever. Just get it out. Let yourself be free to write poorly; you'll be surprised at the real writing that will come out of just letting yourself go.

Write at a Different Place
by Judith Fox

I've found the magic of longhand writing. Some people say they can't do it. But hovering over the computer keyboard, day after day, hour after hour, occasionally the creative muse in you lies down to have a rest.

Horrors. The evil internal editor jumps up to take over and gives you niggling doubts and ceaseless criticisms.

But if I go to Starbucks, sit at my favorite table with my extra foamy latte, take pen in hand and write in my scribbler, it works, and the writing flows.

I wonder if that internal editor isn't allowed in Starbucks?

Writing Time is the Right Time to Write!
by Millie Dunn

We've all had it happen to us. You're writing a great story or article and the ideas and words are coming fast and furious. Then you get to that word, fact, date, or name and draw a blank. What do you do? Go through the alphabet? Head to the nearest thesaurus? Calendar? History book? No! Just draw a line or pencil in as a reminder to look it up later and keep writing. You'll be amazed how smoothly it goes when you don't allow yourself to stop and ponder. Later, when you read what you've written and are ready to edit and revise, you'll find that word or take the time to look up that fact and fit it in.

Building the Clues Frees the Muse
by Christina Sexton Wilcox

Don't you just hate it when you're searching in vain for just the right word? Not just any word, but one that finishes off an alliteration or one that, say, rhymes with dandelion. Maybe I am looking for one that starts with "STR" or ends in "ING".

For poets and writers alike, the right word is only a visual clue away. I created (and have hanging near my computer) a list of all the letters of the alphabet and every possible combination of beginning letter pairs, prefixes and suffixes.

For example, my list (divided into columns) not only includes A to Z, but shows the vowels (and phonetic vowel sounds) separately, then begins with BL and BR, then CH CK CL CR, etc. The combinations can be three letters as well as seen in the S list: SC SCH SH SK SL SM SN SP SQU ST SV SW SY.

The Suffix List can consist of common ones: -able, -ance, -ed, -ing, and -tion. But I have also added a few of the ones I use a lot: -ated, -ion, -ive, -ivy... I encourage each writer to make up a personal list. Organize it in a way that makes sense to you.

Having my list available at a glance keeps me rolling along and hardly ever at a loss for words!

The Back Door to a Writing Career
by Sunnye Tiedemann

The novice freelance writer is confronted with the classical Catch-22: You have to present clips of published writing to get published, and you can't get clips unless you are published. It seems as though the door is closed. But there's a crack in that door to publishing: book reviewing. Many newspaper publishers are more than willing — anxious, in fact — to publish well-written, thoughtful and insightful book reviews. Large newspapers like the NY Times or Washington Post have a "stable" of reviewers so skip those, but suburban and rural papers are viable markets. So read the Sunday book reviews in your local newspaper, copy the style, and write a review of the latest book you enjoyed. Mail it to the editor posthaste and in two weeks make a follow-up phone call to see if they received it. When I did, the editor hired me to write a weekly book review column. I used those clips to launch a career writing magazine articles. Book reviewing is truly the back door to publishing.